Chambana Sun

State Rep. Jason Bunting (R-Dwight) is calling attention to changes in the cottage food industry in Illinois.

“New Illinois law brings big changes for Cottage Food businesses,” Bunting recently posted on Facebook of the industry in which individuals make their living by preparing food in a private home and selling it to the public. Until recently, the only place such merchants could offer their wares was at places like farmers markets.

But then COVID-19 changed everything.

“The pandemic was very disruptive to how we access food,” Kelly Lay, a representative of the Illinois Stewardship Alliance, told Illinois Newsroom. “Both how businesses get to you, but also how you get to the businesses.”

Lay was among those leading the charge in turning the Home-to-Market Act (SB2007) into law and laying the foundation for a far less restrictive marketplace for cottage food industry producers. The law adds requirements necessary for cottage food operations to sell low-acid canned foods and fermented or acidified foods, and it also allows food and drink items to be sold directly to consumers for consumption. 

“It’s huge,” Lay said of the new law. “Anywhere that a cottage food business owner can get in front of you, they can sell to you.”

That is in stark contrast to how current farmers markets operate.

“The change means that licensed producers can now sell directly to consumers out of their own homes, at fairs and festivals, and in roadside stands,” the Newsroom report said. “And the new law allows for in-state shipping and deliveries.”

The new law also opened the door to the kinds of products cottage food businesses can offer to the public. Before, only items considered “non-hazardous”—such as preserves, jams and baked goods—could be sold. Now, the list has expanded significantly to include items like pickles, kimchi and buttercream frosting.

“We’re never going to be the city that attracts Amazon, or these big, like, white whales of economic development,” Lay, who also serves as an alderman in the city of Le Roy, told the Newsroom. “But what we do have are really amazing businesses that we can grow directly from our own people.”

The Institute for Justice recently examined cottage food laws in the state, highlighting that all such producers are required to register each year with local health departments and pay an annual fee. Food handler training is also mandated, but recipe approval or lab testing is required only for acidified and fermented foods or baked goods made with cheese.